Back to Battle
by TomFab
Summary: One year has passed since the 4th Shinobi World War. Peace has finally arrived, or has it? There will always be people who take joy in the suffering of others, and it's up to Naruto and his friends to stop them!
1. Menma & Lars

I'm helpless, ain't I? Whenever I get pumped with Naruto, loads and loads of fanfic ideas come to my head. I really didn't want to start this, as there are two other fanfics that aren't even finished that I'm writing. I already tried twice to write a Naruto fanfic, but those attempts ended up in deletion of the story.

I won't try to make excuses if I suddenly give up on this fic. But it isn't a life goal to begin with, I'm just trying to take the ideas I have out.

I hope neither Naruto nor Sasuke get a power-up until the end. It will screw up this fic for good. And I hope the main characters for this fic don't die before the manga ends. Neji was a heavy blow, really heavy. Even though it brought huge development for NaruHina, it still got to me. I was more shocked at Neji's sudden death than the (basicly) confirmation of my pairing choice.

I will also portray a trustful relationship between Naruto and Sakura. Any scenes "between" those two will be to show their friendship. I'm a NaruHina shipper, but I'm not a Sakura hater, nor do I deny the bond that exists between Naruto and Sakura.

The fic will be set after the war. As with all my other Naruto fics, this one will be set one year after the war. Main characters will include Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata, Gaara and Killer B. There might be others but I'm not sure.

The pairing will not be the main focus of the story, and there will not be a kiss scene. I want this fic to stay in the tone of the manga. However, I assure you NaruHina moments will be somewhat frequent. I'm still not sure if I should give hints to SasuSaku. I love that pairing, but I'm aware of its slim chances of happening. It will probably depend on the role Sasuke plays during the fic.

Also, the villains aren't exactly OC's. Both of them have already appeared in the Naruto franchise one way or another. However, I did give my own twist to them.

Anyway, let's get onto the story.

-o-

Sunagakure...

At night...

-o-

Gaara looked at the papers in front of him, reports from shinobi staying in the other villages. He was glad all the villages had started cooperating after the last war, but that had just tripled his paper work. He wondered what his life would be like if he were still a Genin. He would probably be free to do as he pleased, like Uzumaki Naruto. Still not a Chunin, still not Hokage, free of any shinobi duties...

Gaara went back to take a look at the reports, nothing special in them. Most of them were just information about trades between the villages, he would leave those to the negotiators of Sunagakure. He checked the watch in the room, it was getting pretty late. He would take a better look tomorrow in the morning. He stood up to leave the office, but suddenly the glass windows in the room were shattered to pieces and a gust of wind filled the room.

"What's this?" Gaara asked to himself as he saw a huge rain dropping down on the village all of a sudden "Rain? It almost never rains with this intensity..."

Out of the blue, several lightning descended from the sky, hitting parts of the village and blowing them appart. That was definitely not ordinary lightning, it had to be a Jutsu! The village was being attacked!

"Kazekage-sama!" a Suna Jonin opened the door to the room "We think the village is under attack!"

"I know." Gaara said as he strapped his sand gourd to his back "Find the caster of this Jutsu immediately!"

"Yes, sir!" the Jonin walked away in the corridor.

Gaara jumped out the window and used his sand to fly over the village. As soon as he did that, a handful of lightning came down on him, but it did nothing, as the sand protected him. He scattered sand throughout the village to protect it from the blasts. It wasn't that good of a protection, but if he had to battle against the caster of the Jutsu, he should preserve chakra, so he couldn't create an actual shield above the village. Now, he had just been attacked by the lightning, which meant that the caster could see him the moment he came out of the building. The only spots where it was possible to see that were the walls around the village, or the rooftop of the Kazekage building.

Gaara flew up, and as expected, didn't find anything. It was too obvious a choice. And the caster would be too exposed to attacks from around the village. He had to be on the walls then. Gaara sped through the skies of the village and started flying around the protective walls to see where the caster could be.

"You think it would be this easy?" he heard a voice behind him. Gaara turned to see a punch aimed at his head.

The attack was too fast for him to react, and he was sent crashing into one of the walls surrounding the village. Gaara immediately got up again and looked at his attacker. It was a man with blond hair, whose most proeminent feature was the crescent moon-shaped topknot. He appeared to be wearing some kind of gold armor under a red kimono. The gold gauntlets in his hands were saprking with electricity and he was flying by himself.

"Are you the one attacking the village?" Gaara asked.

"That's a stupid question." the man answered.

"Are you from Iwagakure?" Gaara interrogated again.

"My flying technique has nothing to do with the Tsuchikage's." the man replied.

Gaara had his sand take him up to the same level as the attacker "Why are you attacking the village?"

"The reason doesn't matter." he said "If you can't fight me off, then the village will be in danger, regardless of my reasons."

"You're right." Gaara said, as sand gathered up behind his opponent and proceeded to wrap itself around him, disabling him of any movement and making the rain and the lightnings disappear "We will know your reasons anyway. I'll bring you to the interrogation room."

The man struggled to break free from the sand "That's the Kazekage for you! I knew you were going to be a tough opponent." he said, just before sparks of lightning started surrounding the sand "But it's not enough!" he said as the sand simply fell down, and he was freed.

Gaara went for another attack, but the man blocked it and started flying away at high speeds "You won't escape!" Gaara said as he pursued him throughout the village.

The man started flying in between the buildings, constantly releasing bolts of electricity in an attempt to hit Gaara, who easily blocked the attacks with his sand. Gaara aimed his quick fire attacks carefully so they would only hit the village's attacker.

Soon they were low enough to enter a tunnel at high speeds, the attacker looked back and started releasing even more of his electric bolts, as if they were bullets. Gaara responded using his sand in the same manner.

The attacks had small impacts, but since they were so many, it became impossible to see inside the tunnel. Gaara pushed forward to the end of the tunnel to find out the man was flying high in the sky. Gaara used his sand to try to reach him, but the man dodged his attacks.

"I told you you wouldn't escape!" Gaara shouted as he raised his hand in preparation for another attack. However, nothing appeared to have happened.

"I will if I kill you!" the man said as he put his hands forward and the electricity on his gauntlets went wild "Zeus!" he shot a beam of electricity that hit Gaara head on "Heh! I expected more of the Kazekage."

"Did you now?" the man heard Gaara's voice coming from behind him. He turned around just as Gaara emprisioned him once again in his sand. But this time instead of keeping the man in place, Gaara sent him crashing down onto the Kazekage building.

"What?" the man said as he got up "But... how?"

"Sometimes it's best not to forget the basics." Gaara said as he started making hand seals.

The man panted as he finished getting up "A Sand Clone... I should've seen it coming." he said.

"You knew who I was, you had intel on me." Gaara said as he continued making hand seals "I won this battle because of your mistakes." Gaara put his hands on the floor, as if summoning something, and gold dust appeared and surrounded the attacker, keeping him in place like Gaara's sand had done before.

"This is nothing!" he said as he released electricity to break out, but nothing happened "What?"

"You used your electric charge to dismantle the sand." Gaara said "However, gold is one of the best electricity conductors, which means any electricity you release will immediately be dispersed and sent out. You cannot escape."

"Is this... really gold?" the man asked, Gaara nodded "Then... I guess I really can't escape." he said in defeat.

"Now we will interrogate you." Gaara said as he controlled the gold dust to bring the man into the building.

"Wait!" the man said "I guess you didn't get me after all."

"What?" Gaara saw some kind of seal forming on the ground right below the man. The seal activated, and the man disappeared.

"_This will not be the last time we meet, Kazekage." _the man's voice echoed through the night sky _"You better be ready for when we meet again. Because I will be for sure."_

Gaara examined the seal that had formed, it appeared to be a Kuchiyose seal. Did that mean the man was summoned to another place? So there were two attackers at least! Gaara went back to the Kazekage building and headed towards the External Comunication room "Sunagakure was attacked." he said "Send an alert to all the villages!

-o-

Outside Sunagakure...

-o-

"What were you doing, Lars?" he scolded "You were almost caught!"

"He tricked me!" Lars replied "And didn't you need to do something?"

"I can't. It's impossible to know where he is." he said "Anyway, did you manage to get what we wanted?"

Lars took out a scroll from his robes and opened it, it was empty. Then he made some hand seals before tapping the scroll, it immediately filled up with text. Lars took the scroll and closed it, before handing it to his ally "This is all I could get on how Gaara controls sand."

"It will do for now." he said as he took the scroll "I guess it will be difficult to attack either Konohagakure or Kumogakure for some time."

"The Shinobi Alliance really is troublesome." Lars said "All of the villages must be receiving alerts by now."

"Don't sweat it. With the power we have, we will be able to attack them anyway." he said "And after we're done with that, we will move on to our target."

"You sure know your stuff... Menma." Lars said as they started walking through the desert.

-o-

Konoha...

Three days later...

-o-

Naruto walked out of the graveyard after paying his respects to the Shinobi who had given their lives in the last war. He was feeling a bit sulky, as it always happened when he visited the graveyard. He had achieved true peace... but the cost was incredibly high. He needed to cheer up, and there was no place better for that than the Ichiraku Ramen Shop.

"Naruto-kun?" he heard, before looking to see Hinata.

"Hinata? What-" Naruto said, before noticing she was holding a bouquet of flowers "Neji?"

"Yes." Hinata replied "I figured I should replace the flowers on his grave..."

"When was the last time that you replaced them?" Naruto said in an attempt to keep the conversation going and preventing it from becoming awkward.

"Last week." Hinata replied.

"Last week?" Naruto asked, a week didn't seem that much time, why would the flowers need to be replaced? "And when are going to replace these ones?"

"Next week." Hinata said.

"You mean...?"

"Yes, I've been coming here every week since the end of the war." Hinata said "I want to keep Neji-niisan's memory alive, so he can keep living within me." she explained "I'm actually surprised we never ran into each other..."

"Well, actually I don't come here that often." Naruto said "It reminds me of the cost this peace had..."

"Do you feel sad when you come here?"

"I wouldn't say it makes me sad..." Naruto replied "It just gets me thinking..." he said "Anyway, I'm off to Ichiraku, wanna come with me after you pay your respects?"

"Um... Actually..." Hinata stuttered as she started blushing, she almost dropped the bouquet. Naruto-kun had invited her to come with him to Ichiraku "I would love to go, but..."

"But?"

"I have something to do at home..." Hinata finally said. She was mortified, even after all this time, all she could do in front of Naruto-kun was stutter and blush...

"Oh, bummer... That's a shame..." Naruto said "Well, I guess it will have to wait until next time. See ya, Hinata!" he waved her goodbye before walking toward his favorite ramen shop.

Hinata stood there for a few seconds, thinking about Naruto-kun's invitation. She would love to have gone with him, but unfortunately she wasn't lying when she said she was busy at home... She would have to wait until next time...

Hinata snapped out of her thoughts and headed to the graveyard to pay her respects.

-o-

Later...

-o-

"Ah..." Naruto said "That was so good!"

"Just wait until our new dish is developed." Teuchi said "I'll even give the first one to you for free."

"Whoah! Really?" Naruto said "When will it be ready?"

"We will have everything ready until next week." Teuchi said "This is going to be so good even Hokage-sama will announce it!"

"Awesome! I can't wait!" Naruto said in excitement "You can count on me to be here!"

"We sure do!" Ayame said.

Naruto paid the bill before heading out "I'll be loking forward for that dish!"

"I promise you you won't be disappointed!" Teuchi said as Naruto left "Ah, that Naruto..."

"He might be grown up, but he is still a kid after all." Ayame said.

Naruto walked through the streets of Konoha, heading to the Training Grounds. It was almost time for his training with Sai and Sakura-chan. He arrived there with no problems, but he wasn't the first one to arrive...

"What kept you so long?" Sakura, who was sitting on a tree brach, asked.

"I was eating at Ichiraku's." Naruto replied "And don't get mad at me, Kakashi-sensei takes a lot more time to arrive."

"That's why we started scheduling the meetings with him for half an hour earlier." Sakura said.

"You should be careful, Sakura." Sai said "Kakashi-sensei might be hearing you."

Naruto and Sakura gulped in fear, what would Kakashi-sensei do if he knew of their scheme? He would probably think they were mocking him... He would get angry... and use _1000 Years of Death_ on them... and then-

"I'm just kidding!" Sai said before laughing at them "Kakashi-sensei won't be coming today."

"Sai, you idiot!" Sakura shouted "Don't scare us like that!"

"Do you even have any idea of how much that scared us, 'ttebayo!" Naruto screamed.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Sai said "I just couldn't help it."

"Okay, let's get started, then." Naruto said, before a tree in the forest around them fell aside, prompting him to look there "What was that?"

"Maybe someone is training there." Sakura said.

"Ha!" they heard, before another tree fell down.

"Yeah, someone is definitely training there." Sakura said, before looking at the other two "Wanna see who it is?"

"I don't want to disturb them." Naruto said "Better let it be."

"Okay, we just have to make sure we don't-" Sakura was talking when Naruto suddenly pushed her and Sai toward the forest "What the hell are you-"

Suddenly, an explosion engulfed the Training Grounds, sending Naruto and the others flying backwards. Part of the forest was torn apart as the other person training was also sent flying. After the shock wave, it was possible to see another person standing in the middle of the blast radius. Naruto got up immediately and looked at that person.

"Sakura-chan, Sai, are you guys okay?" he asked.

"Yeah..." Sakura said.

"We're good." Sai said.

"And Hinata, you okay too?" Naruto asked, still looking at the one who had caused the blast.

"I'm okay." Hinata said.

"Hinata, you were the one smashing the trees?" Sakura asked, Hinata nodded.

"Who are you?" Naruto shouted.

"My name is Menma." the man said "As I expected you weren't caught by the blast. And you also saved your friends..."

"I could feel you with Sage Mode." Naruto said.

_'So that's how he knew it was me. Naruto-kun detected my chakra...'_ Hinata thought.

"Yes, that Sage Mode certainly is a nuisance." Menma said, as he started walking toward Naruto.

"Why did you attack us?" Naruto asked.

"'Us'?" Menma repeated "I was only attacking you, Kyubi."

"What did you say?"

"You heard me." Menma said "You're my target, Kyubi." he looked at Naruto, before his eyes revealed a Sharingan.

"Wha...? That is..." Naruto couldn't believe his eyes "You're an Uchiha?"

"What?" Sakura asked.

"No, I'm not an Uchiha." Menma said "I went into a lot of trouble to get these eyes." he said as he prepared to fight.

"Everyone, stay back!" Naruto said just as Menma charged at him.

Naruto blocked Menma's punch, but even with Sage Mode, he had to put a lot of strength to stop it. What was it this guy? His punch was so strong!

"Not yet!" Menma said as he prepared to kick Naruto from the side.

Naruto blocked the kick, but was still sent flying sideways. He crashed into one of the trees that had survived the blast.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata shouted in concern. She stood up and prepared to run to his aid, before she was stopped by Sakura.

"Don't rush in, Hinata." Sakura said "Naruto's got this."

"But he-"

"Don't worry." Sakura said "Trust in my teammate."

Naruto stood up and faced Menma _'This guy... He's strong...'_ He created two clones and went for an attack. Menma evaded all of the punches and kicks with ease before delivering two powerful punches that took the clones out. He then looked around to find Naruto was nowhere to be found.

"Where...?"

"Here!" Naruto said as he came down to Menma from above, before attacking him with a Rasengan "Rasengan!"

"Aah!" Menma shouted in pain as the attack connected, he was pinned to the ground, with no way of escaping the power of the attack.

Naruto jumped backwards and waited to see the effects the attack had on Menma, but soon enough, he got up and started attacking again. Now prepared, Naruto blocked the kick effectively, before delivering a kick of his own, which was also blocked. Without wasting any time, Naruto created two clones who jumped above, while he pinned Menma to the ground.

"That won't work." Menma said as he freed himself from Naruto and jumped high in the air, before kicking one of the clones into the other, making both of them disappear.

"What do you want with me?" Naruto asked "Wasn't the Akatsuki destroyed?"

"Akatsuki? No, I'm not an Akatsuki." Menma said "I just want to complete _it_."

"Complete _it_?" Naruto repeated "What are you trying to complete?"

"There isn't any need to tell you that." Menma said, before advancing for an attack "Once I'm done with you, you can say goodbye to your world!" he said as he charged chakra onto his arm and it started glowing silver.

Naruto tried to duck, but the punch was too fast to even be blocked. Menma's fist buried itself on Naruto's gut, before he was sent flying towards the surviving forest, cleaning away more trees.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata shouted as she struggled to break free from Sakura's grasp.

"Hinata, calm down!" Sakura said.

"Don't worry. He's not dead." Menma said "But he might've broken a rib or two."

"I don't think so!" Naruto's voice was heard, before a high-speed rotating chakra giant shuriken emerged from the forest and went on to hit Menma, who didn't have the time to dodge the Jutsu. The Rasenshuriken hit him and carried him into the air, before exploding in a wind blast.

Naruto, now without Sage Mode, emerged from the forest and slowly walked to where the others were. He tripped halfway, and fell down to the ground.

Hinata finally freed herself from Sakura and went to check on Naruto "Naruto-kun, are you okay?"

"I can manage..." he said as he struggled to get up "Ah! Ow!" he fell down again with the pain.

"Sakura-san!" Hinata called.

"I'm on it." Sakura said as she started healing Naruto.

"That guy..." Naruto started "He's not normal... Especially that last punch..."

"Sai." Sakura called "Scan the area, see if that guy is still around."

"Okay." Sai said as he pulled out his scroll and drew a bunch of mice on it "Ninpou: Choju Giga!" the mice came to life and jumped out of the scroll before searching around the area.

"Hinata, use your Bya-" Sakura was cut short as another explosion ensued. They all looked forward to see Menma on his feet. But something about him was different.

"What is that...?" Naruto was shocked "That's just like my Kurama Chakra Mode..."

Menma was enveloped in silver chakra, and had markings all over him, the Rasenshuriken didn't seem to have worked. He looked at Naruto and the others "I am impressed. I never thought you would actually push me this far without using the Kyubi's chakra..."

"But how? It was a clean hit, the Rasenshuriken should have defeated him!" Sakura shouted in shock.

"Sakura-chan, stop the healing." Naruto said as he got up.

"What? Are you mad?" Sakura replied "You're going to fight him in your condition?"

Naruto activated the Kurama Chakra Mode "If you continued, he wouldn't let you finish." he said "Sakura-chan, Hinata, step down." Naruto ordered.

"There is no need to fight." Menma said "I only wanted to see how you battle."

"What do you mean?"

"Goodbye!" Menma said as he disappeared.

"What?" Sakura said "Where did he go?"

"I can sense him, he won't get away!" Naruto said as he used the mode's speed to pursue Menma. It didn't take long to catch up to him, he was trying to escape the village "Wait!"

"His speed is incredible." Menma noted to himself as he continued running away. He looked ahead, Konoha's walls were close, he would soon get away.

"Sakura, Hinata-san." Sai called "You go and help Naruto if he's injured, I'm going to warn the Hokage!"

"Got it!" Sakura said "Hinata."

"On it!" Hinata activated her Byakugan and looked around "There!"

"Let's go!" Sakura said as they started running.

"Got you!" Naruto shouted as he aimed a punch at Menma.

Menma jumped backwards to avoid the attack "That is no good!" Naruto's hand extended forward and hit Menma square in the face, sending him crashing onto the protective walls. Menma got up almost immediately "Okay, I spoke too soon."

"What are you trying to do?" Naruto asked "What's this thing you're trying to complete?"

"As I said, there is no need for you to know." Menma replied "After you're trapped here, the same thing will happen to the Hachibi."

"What did you say?"

_'What is taking Lars so long? The barrier should've already been activated!'_ Menma thought, just as a seal appeared beneath him "Oh, so that's it."

"What are you talking about?"

"This time you won't be able to catch up to me." Menma said as he disappeared.

Naruto didn't even have time to wonder where Menma had gone to, as a sound came from the village "What's happening?" he looked around and saw Hinata and Sakura running toward him, but right behind them, the ground itself was being teared apart by some kind of chakra wall.

"Naruto, no time to explain!" Sakura said as she charged her fist with chakra and punched Naruto, forcing him out of the Kurama Chakra Mode and sending him flying above the walls and out of the village. She then punched a hole in the walls themselves and jumped out, along with Hinata.

Soon, the sound went away. Naruto got up from the fall, rubbing his broken ribs, before looking at the village. It was entirely enveloped in some kind of barrier "What's going on?"

"The Intelligence Division informed us by telepathy that a barrier had appeared in the center of village." Sakura said, catching a breath "They said it was keeping everyone inside it, no one could come out."

"Now that the barrier is settled, it probably doesn't let us in either." Hinata said. She used her Byakugan to look inside the village "I can't look inside the village, it's blocking everything."

"Did anyone else get out?" Sakura asked.

"I see two people fleeing the village." Hinata said. But just then, the chakra signatures disappered "Huh? They disappeared!"

"Did you manage to see who they were?" Sakura asked.

"No, I didn't recognize any of the signatures..." Hinata replied.

"One of them is probably the one who attacked us." Naruto said "I think he wanted to trap me inside the village..."

Sakura started healing Naruto "Trap you inside, but why?"

"I don't know." Naruto replied "But I think they're after the Bijus. That guy told me something about the Hachibi..."

"This barrier will probably stay until they are defeated." Hinata said "Then we should head to Kumogakure. They're after B-san, so if we go there, we will find them."

"And then I'll beat the crap out of them." Naruto said.

"Sounds like a plan." Sakura said "We can't contact anyone of the village, so that's the best shot we have." she then analysed Naruto's wounds with her chakra "Once Naruto is healed, we will head toward Kumogakure."

-o-

Somewhere...

A day later...

-o-

He walked through the forest quietly. He didn't want to catch unwanted attention. He wasn't in the mood to fight right now. He stopped as he felt a presence around him, and quickly threw a kunai right behind him.

"My, my... You almost got me..." he heard "I was ready to give up and get the Hachibi before I looked for you again."

He turned around and looked at the man "Who are you?"

"My name is Menma." he replied "Pleased to meet you, Uchiha Sasuke."

"What is your business with me?" Sasuke asked.

"You will see." Menma said, before preparing to attack.

"I'm not in the mood for a fight right now." Sasuke said "If you know who I am, then you know it's better not to get on my bad side."

"What if I attack you now?" Menma replied.

"As I said, I'm not in the mood to fight." Sasuke said "If you attack me now, I assure you there won't be a fight."

"What do you mean?" Menma asked "Are you going to kill me?"

"I will crush you until there's nothing left." Sasuke replied.

"That's good." Menma said "I want you to come at me with the intention to kill me."

Sasuke unsheathed his sword and activated his Sharingan "Don't regret it when you wake up in Hell."

-o-

And that was it!

Well, I guess that thing to get Naruto, Sakura and Hinata out of the village was kind of an asspull, but nothing else came to mind.

You might notice I didn't mention many characters outside the main ones and the villains. That's because I have no fucking idea of who is going to die. If Kishimoto killed Neji, he can kill anyone. I just hope these characters don't die for the sake of the fic.

Anyway, how was the chapter? Leave a review.

Have an awesome day.


	2. In Time

Hey guys. So here I am again for the second chapter of _Back to Battle_.

Probably, there will be a lot of questions raised in this chapter. I assure you that the most important things will be explained later on.

Anyway, let's get onto the story.

-o-

"In Hell?" Menma asked "What makes you so sure I'm a bad guy?"

"Someone who's been looking for me is up to no good." Sasuke replied as he examined his opponent.

"What about you?" Menma said.

"Hell won't be the worst experience I go through. And it will be the same for you." Sasuke said as he pointed his sword at Menma "I will show something even worse than Hell." he charged at Menma.

Sasuke jumped forward and slashed at Menma, who jumped backwards to avoid the hit. The tree behind him wasn't so fortunate, and fell to the ground after the slash. Sasuke went for another slash, as Menma picked up the kunai Sasuke had thrown earlier and blocked the sword.

"Is this all you can do?" Menma taunted, while still blocking Sasuke's attack.

Sasuke ignored the taunt, before his sword was engulfed by electricity and cut the kunai in two. Menma immediately threw it away and jumped to dodge another slash that cut more trees behind him. Sasuke wasn't taking him seriously, this would be an easy fight.

As if responding to his thoughts, Sasuke kicked Menma on his chin as he was falling down, sending him flying upwards. Sasuke jumped above Menma and prepared to slash him, there was no chance of defense...

Menma activated his Sharingan and grabbed the electric sword. At his touch, the electricity surrounding the sword dispelled.

"What?" Sasuke said surprise at seeing Menma's Sharingan "You..."

"An opening!" Menma said as he kicked Sasuke, sending him crashing into some trees. He then landed on the ground and looked for Sasuke.

"Those eyes..." Sasuke said as he walked into the now 'treeless' area "Where did you get them?"

"Where..." Menma repeated.

"You're not an Uchiha." Sasuke said "How dare you steal the Uchiha clan's power?"

"It's my power now." Menma said "I have to say these eyes weren't difficult to retrieve..." he taunted "Are all the Uchihas weak like that one?"

"What did you say?" Sasuke replied in anger.

"They probably are, you aren't being much of a challenge either." Menma taunted "You managed to kill Uchiha Itachi, he should be pretty weak then..."

Sasuke gritted his teeth in anger "Don't say a word about Itachi." he activated his Mangekyo Sharingan.

"Oh, it seems I touched a nerve." Menma continued taunting "I'm sorry your brother was so wea-"

In an instant, an arrow from Sasuke's Susanoo pierced Menma through his gut. He looked at the arrow in shock as blood dripped from his mouth. He then looked at Sasuke with a mix of shock and terror in his eyes.

"Those who insult Itachi deserve only death and suffering." Sasuke said in a cold voice, before dispelling his Susanoo and turning to leave.

"Aren't... you going... to... finish me... off?" Menma asked as more blood dripped from his mouth.

"That would be too gentle." Sasuke said as he started walking away "I want you to feel pain."

"Heh! How foolish!" Menma said as he grabbed the arrow "Aaaaaaahhhh!" he started pulling the arrow out.

Sasuke turned to see Menma pulling his arrow out "You prefer to die from blood loss?"

"AAAAHHHH!" Menma shouted in pain and effort as he continued pulling the arrow out.

"Pitiful." Sasuke turned his back again and resumed his walking.

"You... would be surprised... at how many Jutsus I can pull off..." Menma said between pants, prompting Sasuke to look at him in surprise, Menma had pulled the arrow out and was covered in a faint green chakra "I didn't just get these eyes, I got much more!" his wound from the arrow started healing at an incredibly fast rate.

"What..." Sasuke looked in shock as Menma recovered.

"The First Hokage was the only one who could perform this technique." Menma said "It was this technique that granted Senju Hashirama the final victory over Uchiha Madara."

"You're... healing yourself?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes." Menma said as he charged chakra "Now the real fight starts." he was enveloped in dark blue chakra.

"That is..." Sasuke widened his eyes in shock, recognizing the technique "You can't..."

A Susanoo ribcage enveloped Menma like a shield as his eyes revealed Uchiha Madara's Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan "Hehehe... Hahahahaha!" he laughed "Now you know who these eyes belong to!" an arm holding a wooden sword sprouted from the ribcage.

"You stole Madara's eyes." Sasuke said, as he activated his own Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. His Susanoo's ribcage also manifested itself alongside with an arm holding a sword made out of pure chakra "How can you control his power?"

"It doesn't matter how." Menma said "What matters is that I will have to defeat you."

"Hmm? Have to defeat me?" Sasuke repeated.

"Yes. I can't trap you here like I did to the Kyubi." Menma replied "I have to actually defeat you."

"Kyubi? So you've already fought with Naruto?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes. He was strong." Menma said "But he only survived because I wanted him to survive. The next time I go to him, he will die."

Sasuke didn't reply as his Susanoo swinged its sword at Menma, who blocked it with his Susanoo's wood sword.

"My, my..." Menma mocked "What was that?"

"Naruto is the first one that will fall when I destroy Konoha." Sasuke said "The one who will kill Naruto is me and me alone."

"You think so?" Menma replied "What happens if I kill you now?"

"Simple. That won't happen." Sasuke said as he pushed his Susanoo's sword forward.

Menma continued blocking, but he knew that if this continued, Sasuke would eventually win. While he had the eyes of the strongest Uchiha in history, and quite a compatible body, he wasn't an Uchiha, he would eventually wear out. For him to be able to use his eyes without exhausting, he would need _it_ to be complete... He decided to end the battle quickly, as he needed Sasuke to die. He summoned his complete two-sided Susanoo and pushed Sasuke back.

"I don't have time to play around." Menma said "I will kill you in one strike!"

Sasuke summoned his complete Susanoo "Someone who is using stolen power can never beat a true Uchiha!" he shouted as he readied his attack.

Menma's Susanoo stuck both of its blades on the ground, before sharp wood spears started emerging from the ground and aimed at Sasuke. His Susanoo cut the spears as they appeared with its sword.

Menma then had his Susanoo create several chakra spirals and shot them at Sasuke "Yasaka no Magatama!"

"Enton: Yasaka no Magatama!" Sasuke shouted as his Susanoo used its 'Amaterasu bowl' to form the same spirals, but out of black flames, and shot them, intercepting the attack.

"Ah!" Menma's Susanoo pointed both of its wood swords at Sasuke and thrust forward.

The chakra sword in Sasuke's Susanoo was replaced by a sword of black flames, and the Susanoo cut its opponent's wood swords. Not wasting any time, Sasuke's Susanoo went to retaliate the attack.

"This is the end!" Sasuke said "Sword of Kagutsuchi!" his Susanoo swung the sword down at Menma, before he was engulfed in a dome of Amaterasu flames. When the flames extinguished (by Sasuke's will) nothing was left "You were foolish to underestimate the Uchiha."

Sasuke deactivated his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and prepared to leave the area. He shouldn't stay in one place for too long. _'That guy... He wasn't using his full power...' _Sasuke thought _'He knew the black flames would consume him until there was nothing left... Why did he let me attack him?'_

-o-

Menma appeared right beside Lars "Whew! That went well."

"One moment later and you would've died." Lars said "You need to stop testing their powers and start absorbing them instead."

"I had to let him win this battle." Menma said "Madara's eyes are still too much for me, if the battle dragged on, I would've been exhausted."

"You already have the Kyubi's Yin chakra." Lars commented "I thought you would be able to withstand it this time."

"I need to train these eyes. Get my body used to them." Menma said "Once I'm done with that, I might be able to use them to their full extent."

"You are getting more powerful by the minute." Lars said "The powers of a pure Uchiha, and chakra from the Kyubi."

"That is why neither Uchiha Sasuke nor the Kyubi's Jinchuriki can win against me." Menma said "I have the same power as their powers combined."

"Will you try to take Sasuke's powers as well?" Lars asked.

"It was interesting to fight with him." Menma commented "I wonder what will happen if I combine the powers of two Eternal Mangekyo Sharingans." he then looked at Lars "Anyway, I will give this to you." he took a scroll out of his robes "You were the one who fought the Kazekage, you deserve to get his powers."

Lars took the scroll as Menma took an empty scroll and filled it with information about Sasuke.

"So, who will take on the Hachibi?" Lars asked.

"I think you should be the one." Menma said "I already have the scrolls for the Uchiha and the Kyubi. You should get the ones for the Kazekage and the Hachibi."

-o-

Sunagakure...

-o-

"Kazekage-sama!" a Jonin opened the door to Gaara's office.

"What is it?" Gaara asked.

"This is the report of the External Comunication." the Jonin handed a paper to Gaara, who read it.

"But this is..." Gaara said "So, Konoha is..."

"We don't know the reason as of yet, but it appears that nothing can enter or leave Konohagakure." the Jonin said, before noticing Gaara's pensative expression "Sir?"

"Four days ago we were attacked." Gaara said "And yesterday Konoha was attacked." he continued thinking "It takes three days to get from here to Konoha."

"You think the one who attacked us is behind the attack at Konohagakure as well?" the Jonin suggested.

"Most likely." Gaara said, before thinking a bit more "They attacked Sunagakure, where I live... Then they went for Konoha, where Naruto lives..."

"Do you know where they'll go next?" the Jonin asked.

"Tell the others I'll be away." Gaara said "I'll pay Kumogakure a visit. Inform the Raikage that I will go to the village in secrecy."

"We will prepare your escort and-"

"No. I will go alone." Gaara said "It will quieter and faster if I have no company."

"But sir, it will take almost a week to go to Kumogakure." the Jonin said.

"That won't be a problem." Gaara said "Now, go."

"Yes sir." the Jonin bowed and exited the room.

_'Naruto... This report probably means you are trapped in Konoha. I will fight the ones who trapped you, and with their defeat, your village will be released.'_ Gaara went to prepare for his trip toward Kumogakure. He just hoped he arrived on time, otherwise Konoha might be cut off from the Shinobi World forever.

-o-

Inn...

Next morning...

-o-

Naruto stepped out of the Inn and stretched his limbs. He, along with Sakura-chan and Hinata, had been travelling the day before. Since they were pratically forced out of the village, they didn't have anything to set camp with, so they decided to stay in an Inn for the night and buy what they needed there.

Naruto sit on a bench right outside the Inn. It would take at least two more days to arrive at Kumogakure, and that was if they went fast. He wasn't sure if they would arrive in time to beat that guy.

"Naruto-kun..." he heard. Hinata was ready to leave.

"Hinata, you're already done?"

"Yes." she replied "There wasn't much to pack, you know..."

"Right..." Naruto said "And Sakura-chan?"

"She's buying what we'll need for the trip." Hinata answered.

"I see..." Naruto replied.

Silence settled for a few seconds, before Naruto decided to speak up again.

"Hinata..."

"Yes?"

"It will take us days before we can reach Kumogakure..." he said "What if we don't arrive in time?"

"We will." Hinata replied "If it takes us days to arrive there, then it will also take days for them to get there."

"I'm not so sure, Hinata." Naruto said "That guy was pretty powerful, he even had similar powers to mine..."

"Naruto-kun, don't worry." Hinata said as she put her hand on top of Naruto's "We will arrive in time."

"Are you sure...?"

Hinata smiled gently at Naruto "I'm sure we will."

"Okay, I got everything we need." Sakura said as she came out of the Inn.

Naruto got up "Okay, then." he looked at three backpacks on Sakura's feet "Are those our provisions?"

"Yes." Sakura said "I think all we need for the trip will be in there."

"Good." Hinata said as she grabbed one of the bags "Then we're all good to go?"

"Yup." Sakura said as she grabbed another bag "Naruto, ready?"

"Yeah." Naruto grabbed the last bag "Let's go!"

The three resumed their trip to Kumogakure. Now with provisions, there was no need to go out of their way to find a place to eat or sleep. They were sure to get there faster.

-o-

Kumogakure...

Three days later...

-o-

"Whee!" Killer B ended his rap as the people from his village applauded and cheered. Another successful concert.

Naruto had arrived at the village not long ago, and he, along with Sakura and Hinata, had just been watching Killer B's concert with the rest of the crowd.

"Well, B-occhan sure is enjoying himself." Naruto said.

"Right. Now we need to talk to him." Sakura said "How are we going to do that?"

"Sakura-san's right." Hinata said "He's not going to listen to us if we're in the middle of this crowd."

"Don't worry." Naruto said "I have just the way." he concentrated.

-o-

He appeared in his subconscious and looked above to see Kurama looking at him with an angry face.

"So, you finally decided to talk to me after God knows how much time." Kurama scolded "You didn't come here since last week!"

"Shut up!" Naruto shouted "If you haven't noticed, I was busy, okay?"

"Tch! Busy or not, it gets lonely in here, you know?" Kurama said.

"What are you babbling on about? You stayed put for twelve freaking years!" Naruto continued shouting "And now you're sulking because I haven't talked to you in a week?" Naruto showed his tongue "Spoiled fox!"

"What did you say?" Kurama shouted "Who exactly is the one that spoiled me?"

"Shut up!" Naruto replied "If you're strong you can resist getting spoiled!" he mocked "Guess that means you're weak..."

"Look here, you brat!" Kurama shouted "If I was weak you'd be dead by now!"

A silence ensued that was broken by Naruto and Kurama laughing. After they got it out, Naruto started getting serious.

"Anyway, I need you to connect me to Hattsan." Naruto said "I need to talk to B-occhan."

"No problem." Kurama said.

-o-

"Hm?" B started looking through the crowd to see where Naruto was, after Hattsan had talked to him "Oh, there he is." he said to himself, before turning to the microphone "Oi, everyone! Don't go just yet, yo! We have a special guest today, 'ttebayo!"

"'ttebayo?" Sakura questioned "Isn't that what Naruto says?"

"Don't tell me..." Naruto gulped in fear.

"The savior of the Shinobi World himself, Uzumaki Naruto, yo!" Killer B produced one of the Hachibi's tails and lunged it at Naruto. He then pulled Naruto to the stage. Everyone in the crowd started clapping.

Naruto looked at the crowd and started feeling nervous.

"Sakura-san." Hinata said "Something tells me this won't go well."

Sakura sighed "That Naruto... Always getting into trouble..."

"So, Naruto. Tell us how it feels to be the savior of the world, ya fool!" B said.

"Uh..." Naruto was at a loss for words "I..."

"_Oi, B! When I told you Naruto was here and he wanted to talk to you, I didn't mean this!"_ the Hachibi said.

_'Hattsan, yo! You'll have to be clearer next time, ya idiot!'_ B said in his subconscious.

"Well, it feels... nice..." Naruto said the first thing that came to his mind "It feels great that I was of help to so many people..."

"_You're an idiot, you know that?" _Kurama said.

_'Shut up! You're not helping!'_ Naruto replied.

"_B! Do something!" _the Hachibi said.

"Uh... We have a bit of a problem. We will have to go, yo!" B said to the crowd "Naruto is going to give autographs this afternoon 'ttebayo!"

Naruto didn't even have time to facepalm as B pulled him to the backstage "Wah!"

B closed the door to the stage and looked at Naruto "Yo, what did you want to talk to me about, ya fool?"

"What the hell was that, B-occhan?" Naruto said "I don't have time to give autographs to that many people!"

"I didn't want to ruin your reputation, ya idiot, ya fool!" B said.

"My reputation is the least of my worries right now!" Naruto replied "B-occhan, this village is in danger!"

"Hm?"

"A few days ago, I was attacked by a weird guy that trapped Konoha in a barrier." Naruto explained "He told something about Hattsan, so I came here to warn you." he said "Also, if I beat that guy, I might be able to free Konoha."

"... I see..." B replied "Then I, Killer B-sama, shall beat them into a pulp with a Biju Dama! Whee!"

"B-occhan, it isn't that eas-"

B put his fist forward "C'mon, baby!"

Naruto bumped fists with B.

"Ah... So that's what you meant..." B said as he read Naruto's toughts "Hmm... He is strong, indeed..."

"See? B-occhan?" Naruto said "We were lucky we arrived here on ti-"

Naruto was cut off by the sound of an explosion coming from outside. He and B went outside to see the people of the village running away.

"They arrived." Sakura said.

Hinata turned to Naruto, who was now coming to them along with Killer B "Naruto-kun!"

"I know!" Naruto replied "We need to act, now!"

"So these are Hinata and Sakura, yo." Killer B approached the girls "Really, they are-"

"_B! Concentrate!"_ the Hachibi shouted, snapping B out of his perversion.

"B-occhan, let's go!" Naruto said.

"Let's go, yeah!" B replied as he and Naruto started running towards the site of the explosion.

"Wait! Naruto-kun, B-san!" Hinata started running as well, followed closely by Sakura.

Naruto and B arrived at the Unraikyo lake, B's special training place, followed shortly by Hinata and Sakura. In the center island, there was a man. He appeared to be waiting for them.

"Who the hell are you, ya idiot, ya fool?" B asked.

Lars looked at B and Naruto. What was he doing here? Wasn't he supposed to be trapped in Konoha? Did he manage to escape? But how? He would have to talk to Menma once the fight was over "Let's just say that I am not to be taken lightly."

"Wait, B-occhan." Naruto said "He's not the one who attacked me."

"But he is one of the attackers of the village." Hinata said, looking at Lars with her Byakugan "This chakra signature was one of the two that were fleeing Konoha when it was trapped."

"So he's with that guy." Sakura said "Did he come here to fight B-san?"

"Naruto." B said "This fight is for the great Killer B-sama, you won't need to enter the panorama, yeah." he stepped forward.

Lars looked at B "You will fight me alone?"

"Those from the likes of you only need one opponent, if you won't get more 'cuz this is your final atonement, yeah!" B rapped.

"You seem pretty confident." Lars said.

"Do you even know who I am? I am the Super Hachibi Killer B!" B replied "Oh, yeah!"

"I am well aware of who you are." Lars said "I wouldn't challenge you unless I was sure that I would defeat you."

"Full of yourself, you're part of the lame ones!" B rapped "That's is why the great Hachibi-sama will break your bones! Whee!" he had Samehada give him his eight swords and prepared to battle.

"We will see who's full of himself." Lars replied as he prepared to fight.

B jumped toward Lars and attacked with one of his swords, Lars blocked it with his electric gauntlet. B continued using his swords with swift acrobatic maneuvers, Lars managed to keep up and block the attacks with his gauntlets. B then kicked Lars from below and jumped above to continue his attack. When Lars landed, B launched three of his swords to try and pierce him, but Lars dodged all three shots.

Using his acrobatic moves, B picked up the three swords and resumed his barrage of attacks. Lars manged to block all of them until B released his swords and let them fly through the air, in order to distract Lars from the real attack. B then delovered a kick that Lars dodged, leaving him wide open. B picked up two of the flying swords and made an unblockable thrust, hitting Lars square in the chest.

However, instead of piercing through Lars, like B was expecting, the two swords broke. Lars jumped back to gain distance as B let the rest of the swords fall to the ground and ended his attack.

"Damn you, stranger." B said calmly "My two swords broke, I never hit you, you were like smoke."

"Your attack was perfect." Lars said "No flaws, you created a diversion to leave me wide open and attacked me at that time. However, my armor is not easy to pierce through."

B made his rap sign "Time for Number Eight! Whee!" red chakra bubbles started surrounding his body, until they covered it fully. He charged at Lars.

Lars didn't even have time to react. B was on him in a split second "Wha..."

"Lariat!" B shouted as he buried his forearm on Lars' neck.

Lars was sent flying to the water. He coughed blood and panted heavily as he struggled to get up. There was a huge pain on his chest, that last attack did serious damage.

"Your chest wasn't pierced." B said "That armor of yours is fierce like a fang, better get rid of it with a Super big bang! Whee!" he started the full transformation into Hachibi.

"Don't tell me he's..." Lars said to himself.

B completed the transformation "Right now I'm so big, it's like you turned chibi, there's no way in hell you can compare to Hachibi! Yeah!"

_'Shit! This is bad...'_ Lars tought _'I have to get out of here!'_

"Suffer defeat at the hands of Hachibi-sama, with this full power Biju Dama!" B rapped as he started gathering chakra for the Biju Dama.

Lars prepared to run away from the attack. The Biju Dama used a huge amount of chakra. If he managed to evade the attack, he could take the moment in which B was at his weakest to take him down. He barely started to even walk, he was trapped and unable to move.

"There is no need for that." a new voice said "I have trapped him, you can dispell your attack and conserve your chakra."

"This voice..." Naruto said, before looking above in the sky "Gaara!" Gaara was hovering over them on his sand cloud, he had trapped their enemy.

"You again?" Lars said. He discharged electricity, but to no avail. He was trapped in the gold dust.

Gaara slowly descended onto the ground as B dispelled the Biju Dama and the Hachibi transformation. Gaara stepped down right beside Naruto "Naruto, I thought Konoha had been cut off."

"You know?" Naruto asked "Hinata, Sakura-chan and I managed to escape in time."

"And so you came here to warn Killer B." Gaara said.

"Yes." Naruto replied.

"Hey, I was in the middle of my show, ya idiot, ya fool!" B shouted at Gaara.

"It's better if we keep him alive for interrogation." Gaara said as he brought the trapped Lars to his side "He attacked Sunagakure too."

"Really?" Naruto asked, Gaara nodded.

"I am sure he has a partner." Gaara said "When I trapped him in Sunagakure, he escaped with some kind of Kuchiyose."

"He does." Naruto said "The one who attacked us wasn't him."

"But I saw his chakra signature when we escaped the barrier." Hinata said "He was with the one who had attacked us."

"Naruto." Gaara said "Did the one who attacked you vanish?"

"Vanish? You mean like, disappear into thin air?" Naruto replied.

"Yes."

"Yeah, he did." Naruto said.

"That means the one who got him out was this guy." Sakura said.

"And vice-versa." Gaara continued "He will probably be summoned by his partner soon."

"Hmph! So you figured it out..." Lars said "Yes, Menma and I are partners."

"What is it that you want?" Gaara asked.

"Why don't you find out for yourselves?" Lars taunted "You guys are so smart!"

"You-" Naruto went to punch Lars, but Gaara signaled him to stay put.

"Don't worry. The preparations are almost complete." Lars said "The next time we see each other will be the last!" he said before disappearing.

"That guy..." Naruto angrily said.

"He's right." Gaara said, calling everyone's attention "If we want to beat them, it will have to be when they're together. The next time we fight will be the last."

"Then we willl fight together." Naruto said "With all of us, we will be able to trap them together and beat them up."

"I agree with Naruto, he's the man! We will beat them as if they were ants!" B said "Oh, yeah!"

"Okay, Hinata and Sakura-chan too!" Naruto said.

"Huh?" the girls said.

"Hinata, with your Byakugan we can find them earlier." Naruto said "And Sakura-chan, we will need someone to heal us."

"Naruto is right. We will need a tracking shinobi and a medical ninja." Gaara said "Well, those are the basics anyway."

"Then it's settled! Whee!" B rapped "We will save the world again, oh yeah!"

Gaara took the lead "First we will see where they are. In the next days, we will look for areas in which the chakra level is unusually high."

-o-

Outside Kumogakure...

-o-

Lars filled the last scroll with information on the Hachibi. He picked it up and handed it to Menma "This is the last one." he said.

"Yes." Menma replied "Soon we will achieve the true revival of the Juubi. With our Bijukojo no Jutsu."

"However, we will need to use the little Biju chakra we have to fully develop it under the Jutsu." Lars said "Otherwise we won't be able to completely replicate the original Biju's chakra."

"Yeah." Menma said "Let's go to our hideout. We will start as soon as possible."

-o-

And that was the chapter! How did you like it?

Apparently, the story is drawing to a close. I wasn't expecting it to move this fast, but I'm actually happy that it turned out like this. This way, I can end the story before my motivation for it disappears.

If you are wondering how Gaara made a week-long trip in just three days, remember he can fly. Yeah, that helps.

What is the Bijukojo no Jutsu? Will Naruto and his friends be able to locate Menma and Lars before it's too late? Leave a review.

Have an awesome day.


	3. To the Light

Hey guys. Inspiration striked me and so I have this chapter ready to serve!

Most of the chapter won't be much to fuss about, I am more proud of the ending. I really enjoyed writing the ending of this chapter.

Sadly, there won't be much Killer B in this chapter. It's not just because he won't have that important a role today, but also because finding rhymes for everything he says is a pain. I wonder how Kishimoto can find so many lines for him.

To compensate, this chapter has more than one NaruHina moment. And Sasuke will appear too.

Anyway, let's get onto the story.

-o-

Lars turned to Menma as they jumped through the trees "Naruto was there." he said.

"Yeah, I know, I could see his chakra." Menma replied "How did he escape our barrier?"

"So you don't know that either?" Lars said.

"Whatever the reason was... We will probably have to fight him." Menma said "It won't be a problem, I will be able to at least merge the two chakras of the Kyubi together before we have to fight him. He only has the Kyubi's Yang chakra."

-o-

Somewhere...

-o-

Sasuke put the Kumo ninja to sleep. Apparently the Shinobi World still considered him a criminal. Well, he didn't expect for the world to forget what he had done in just one year. He inspected the ninja to see if he didn't have any Kibaku Fuda or something like that. He didn't find anything explosive, but he did find a report paper.

Sasuke took the paper out and read it.

_The villages have been attacked in the last few days. First Sunagakure, then Konohagakure, and finally Kumogakure. The cause for the attacks is, as of yet, unknown. Because of this, it is impossible to predict where the next attack will be._

Sasuke blew a weak fire to the paper and burned it to ashes. This had to do with the guy that had attacked him a few days earlier. That guy said he had fought Naruto and that he was going after the Hachibi. The attack on Sunagakure was probably because of Gaara, who was a former Jinchuriki. There were no more Jinchurikis on the lose, so it was safe to assume that the attacks would stop for now.

"This means that guy isn't dead." Sasuke said to himself "Someone got him out. They're probably heading to their hideout."

Sasuke activated his Sharingan and looked around, something like the Bijus would have to be big in terms of chakra. If he looked for a few days, he would find them. Then he would get rid of them. He said Naruto was trapped in Konoha, then he would head there immediately after he dealed with those guys and kill Naruto once and for all.

"Time to go." Sasuke said as he left the Kumo ninja there.

-o-

Two days later...

Kumogakure...

-o-

Naruto entered their shelter worn out. He would make sure B-occhan would pay for this. Now he had to give autographs to God knows how many people. He sighed as he sit on a chair, his wrist was hurting of writing so much.

"Naruto." Gaara called "Go on."

"Oh Gaara, can't it wait?" Naruto replied "My wrist is hurting."

"Go on." Gaara ignored Naruto's plea.

Naruto stayed still for a few moments as he entered Sage Mode, then he put his hand on Hinata's shoulder. Hinata was charging chakra to expand her field of vision to its maximum distance. Naruto concentrated.

"That really is an ingenious method." Sakura said.

"By using the sensing powers of Sage Mode, and the distance the Byakugan can cover, we can expand our research area quite a lot." Gaara explained "Naruto is also providing her with chakra, so the Byakugan can look even further beyond. It won't be late until we find them."

Suddenly there was a knock on the door, Sakura went and opened it to see a Kumogakure ninja holding a bouquet of flowers.

"A delivery to..." he read the paper attached to the bouquet "Hyuga Hinata..."

"Hm?" Hinata broke the search as she and Naruto turned to look at the delivery man. Hinata walked toward him and he handed the bouquet to her.

"Is there anything else?" Sakura asked.

"No, that is all." the ninja said before leaving.

Sakura closed the door and turned to Hinata, who was looking at the flowers in surprise "Someone has a secret admirer."

"What? Hinata got flowers?" Naruto said "But... who gave them to you?"

"It doesn't say here." Hinata replied.

"And how the hell do they know your name?" Naruto continued "And how do they know you're staying here?"

Hinata turned to Naruto "I... don't know..."

"Naruto, why are you so surprised that Hinata got flowers?" Sakura asked.

Naruto looked at Hinata in the eye "Actually, I'm not surprised at all..."

Naruto and Hinata stared at each other for a few moments, she started feeling her cheeks going hot.

Gaara cleared his throat to call their attention.

-o-

Later...

-o-

"We got it!" Naruto said, breaking the search.

"Where?" Gaara asked.

"In an island between here and Kirigakure." Hinata said.

"Naruto, warn Killer B." Gaara said "We will leave immediately."

"Wait." Sakura said "What if it isn't them after all? Isn't it better for a few if us to go and check it first?"

"That would take days." Gaara said "If it is them, they might be done by the time we get there. We have to go now, it's a risk I am willing to take."

"Me too." Naruto said.

Hinata nodded.

"Fine." Sakura said "Go, Naruto."

Naruto exited the shelter and went to find B.

-o-

At sea...

-o-

Sasuke walked on the water. He didn't know if this was the right way, but something told him it was. Soon, he would get rid of that guy for good. Menma... He had insulted Itachi and the Uchiha and stole the eyes of Uchiha Madara... He was going to pay for the atrocities he did against the Uchiha. _'I will crush you like the bug that you are!'_ Sasuke thought and he started running on the water, to pick up the pace _'Just wait, Menma...'_

-o-

Later...

On a forest...

-o-

They were on Gaara's sand clouds, speeding through the skies. Hinata and Sakura were on one of the clouds, Naruto and B were on another one of them. Gaara was on the cloud at the front. At this pace, they would arrive there in half a day. There might be a chance they would be able to stop whatever plans their enemies had.

"Sakura-san..." Hinata said.

"Hmm?"

"What do you think that Naruto-kun meant when he said he wasn't surprised?" Hinata asked.

"About the flowers?" Sakura looked at Naruto, who was talking with B "It could mean a lot of things. But I think he meant that it's not surprising for people to like you."

"Why would he say that?" Hinata asked.

"Because that's what he thinks." Sakura replied "He's not the kind of guy that beats around the bush, you know?"

"You think so?"

"I'm sure of it." Sakura said "Naruto holds you in a very high regard."

_'Naruto-kun...'_ Hinata looked at Naruto... She had always wanted be beside him... And somehow she felt that she was closer to him than ever. Was what Sakura-san was telling her true? Did Naruto-kun really think so highly of her?

-o-

Menma & Lars' hideout...

-o-

Lars kneeled down with the exhaustion... It was unbelievably tiring, but he had managed to finally replicate the Hachibi's chakra. He had also gained the ability to control sand, thanks to the Ichibi's chakra. He was now more powerful than ever before... Now he would be able to get back at the Kazekage and the Hachibi...

"Wah!" Menma fell to the ground after merging the two halves of the Kyubi's chakra. He panted so heavily it seemed he was hyperventilating.

"Menma..."

"Don't worry..." Menma said as he slowly got up "With the Kyubi's chakra complete, I'll be able to supply myself better to withstand Madara's eyes... And now, to replicate Uchiha Sasuke's chakra..."

"Don't be so rash." Lars said "You barely survived the replication of the Kyubi's chakra, you're going to merge Sasuke's and Madara's powers so soon?"

"They are coming." Menma said as he opened Sasuke's scroll "I know it! Soon, they will be here to attack us..."

"What?"

"I'll use Senju DNA as well to make it easier..." Menma said "You should use it too."

"Why would I need it?" Lars asked.

"The way you are now, you're at equal level to that of the Kazekage and the Hachibi combined." Menma said "With Senju DNA, you will be able to crush them both at the same time..."

"You are thinking about the battle..." Lars said "Does that mean we won't be able to revive the Juubi before they arrive here?"

"Yes." Menma replied "We will have to kill them first."

-o-

Hours later...

Kurikimo Island...

-o-

Gaara alowed them to step down from the sand clouds "Is this the place?" he asked.

"Yes, this is the place I was seeing when we found that enormous amount of chakra." Hinata said.

"But now that chakra's gone." Naruto, in Sage Mode, said "Did they manage to achieve their goal?"

"That is possible." Gaara said.

"Then... we lost?" Naruto asked.

"No way in hell we lost! We will beat'em up no matter what the cost!" B rapped "Oh yeah!"

"But if they have what they want..."

"Naruto-kun, we will win." Hinata said.

"But..." Naruto looked at Hinata.

"Didn't we say we would beat them?" Hinata replied "If we said we will beat them, then we will beat them."

"Hinata..." Naruto looked at her in awe, before regaining his confidence "Okay, then. Let's go!" Naruto started running.

"Whee!" Killer B folowed Naruto.

Gaara didn't say a word and followed suit.

Hinata turned to Sakura "Sakura-san, let us go."

"Yes." Sakura replied as they started running as well.

On top of a hill nearby Sasuke looked down on Naruto, Sakura and the others. What was the meaning of this? Wasn't Naruto trapped in Konoha? Why were he and Sakura here? The Hachibi's Jinchuriki and Gaara were also here. That meant they were here to battle those guys...

Sasuke was fighting back the urge to battle Naruto right here and now. The plan he had devised was that he would get rid of those guys first. Then he would take care of Naruto...

-o-

They walked out of the cave that was their hideout. They took a gander at the giant island from the entrance of the cave.

"They're here." Menma said, using the Kyubi's sensory skills "Not only the Kyubi, the Hachibi and the Kazekage, but Uchiha Sasuke too."

"Do you think they teamed up?" Lars asked.

"No." Menma replied "Sasuke's too proud to join powers with the Kyubi's Jinchuriki."

"That will be his downfall." Lars said.

Menma gave a wicked smile "Pathetic, they are going to fight us only to be crushed like bugs." he said "I will make them suffer before I'm done with them."

"And what happens after we're done with them?" Lars asked.

"We will revive the Juubi completely and scatter despair through the world." Menma replied "Hm?" he looked forward to see Sasuke.

"Suffering? Despair?" Sasuke said "Are you fighting for those empty values?"

"Of course I am!" Menma shouted "Revenge, friendship, bonds... Those things mean nothing to me! I kill because I want to!"

"Not only did you steal the Uchiha's power, you dare to use that power for such a pathetic reason?" Sasuke replied "You're an insult to the Uchiha legacy! I will eradicate you from this world with my own hands!"

"Lars." Menma said "I will fight this one." he gave another wicked smile.

"Be my guest." Lars replied as Menma stepped forward.

Naruto and the others arrived at the scene. They looked at Menma and Sasuke as they prepared to battle "What...? What is Sasuke doing here?"

"Was he targeted too?" Sakura said.

"Oi, Sasuke!" Naruto shouted.

Sasuke ignored them.

"Aren't you going to ask for the help of one of your friends?" Menma asked.

"I don't need any help against the likes of you." Sasuke said as he activated his Mangekyo Sharingan.

Menma looked at Sasuke "Good! That way I will make them suffer by looking at how I toy with your dead body!"

Naruto suddenly felt a huge pressure on his shoulders. It was Menma's chakra "He..."

"What's this?" Hinata said as she felt a pressure on her shoulders.

Amazing, this guy's chakra was so heavy even those who couldn't sense chakra could feel it. Naruto looked at Sasuke again. This was bad... He ran toward Sasuke "Sasuke! He's-"

Sasuke raised a wall of Amaterasu between him and Naruto, making Naruto stop right in his tracks. The black flames then disappeared "Naruto, stay out of this."

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted. He didn't advance, because he knew Sasuke would activate Amaterasu again.

Sasuke ignored Naruto's shouts and concentrated on Menma "Let's get this fight started."

Menma laughed "Hahaha! Okay then." he activated Madara's Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and was enveloped in an orange chakra cloak, reminiscent of Naruto's Kurama Chakra Mode "Let us go!"

Sasuke changed to his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. _'This guy has Kyubi's chakra? I thought he only had Madara's eyes...'_

"_You would be surprised at how many Jutsus I can pull off." Menma said._

_'So that's it. He stole the power of the Kyubi too.' _Sasuke thought.

"You're wide open." Menma said, from behind Sasuke.

"Wha..."

Sasuke didn't even have time to turn around when Menma delivered a chop that sent Sasuke flying across the field. Sasuke hit the ground several times before finally stopping. He slowly got up and looked at Menma, only to see he wasn't there.

"Looking for me?" Menma appeared right in front of Sasuke and grabbed him by his throat, lifting him up into the air "What's wrong? Weren't you going to eradicate me from this world?"

"Gah!" Sasuke gasped for air as he struggled to break free from Menma's grasp. He unsheated his sword, before blindly slashing at Menma, who twisted his wrist, forcing him to drop the sword.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura shouted in concern.

"Let me get this straight." Menma said as he gripped Sasuke's throat even harder "You only won our battle because I let you win."

"Sasuke..." Naruto looked hopelessly at Sasuke.

Sasuke grabbed Menma's arm (the one that was gripping his throat) "I... Ugh!" he ran electricity through his body to try and shock Menma, but to no avail. Menma only strengthened his grip even further, forcing Sasuke to stop the attack.

"The difference between me and you." Menma said "Is like the one between the sky and the earth."

"Ugh... Ah!" Sasuke still struggled to break free as he felt his body going numb. He would soon be unconscious.

"How disappointing." Menma said, before he summoned his Susanoo's arm and sword.

Sakura watched in terror as the Susanoo's sword pierced through Sasuke's body, causing blood to drip from his mouth and his eyes to go lifeless "SASUKE-KUN!" she screamed in agony. She started running toward Menma, but Naruto stopped her "LET ME GO! SASUKE-KUN-"

"Sakura-chan... Stop." Naruto said as he struggled to keep Sakura in place. He could barely contain himself... seeing Sakura-chan lashing out in agony only made it that much harder.

Menma kicked Sasuke's body toward Naruto and Sakura "That was what the last of the Uchiha could do against me... Pitiful..."

Sakura fell to her knees as she saw Sasuke's body with a huge hole in his abdomen. She started crying on top of Sasuke, before desperately trying to heal him.

"Sakura-chan..." Naruto tried to pull Sakura from, but she didn't let go of Sasuke.

Hinata's eyes teared up, while Gaara and Killer B looked on.

Naruto looked at Menma, before activating Biju Mode "Hinata, watch out for Sakura-chan and Sasuke." he calmly said.

"Naruto-kun?"

"I'll make sure he doesn't do that again." Naruto said "I won't let him hurt my friends."

Menma laughed "Hahahaha! You saw what happened to him! Do you think you stand a chance against me?"

"Naruto-kun will defeat you!" Hinata shouted, surprising Menma. She stepped forward and stood beside Naruto "We won't let you hurt our friends anymore!"

"We will never go back on our word!" Naruto and Hinata shouted together as they held hands "That is our nindo, our ninja way!"

The chakra around Naruto exploded as he passed it to Hinata, just like a year before.

"Prepare yourself, Menma!" Naruto shouted as he charged at Menma, leaving Hinata to protect Sakura and Sasuke.

-o-

It was cold, it was dark... as if he was slowly falling through a bottomless pit. Was he... dead? He didn't feel much alive. It didn't hurt, it didn't feel good, nothing... He wasn't even conscious of himself. He was just there... falling through the darkness...

"S... k...n..." he heard a faint voice. He couldn't exactly make out what it was.

"S... k...!" he heard a different voice, but just like the previous one, it was too faint to know what it was.

"Sas... kun..." the voice was getting clearer, he had heard this voice before.

"Sas... ke!" the second voice had also become clearer. It also felt familiar.

"Sasuke-kun..." the first voice was now loud and clear. He looked above as a small light appeared.

"Sasuke!" the second voice barged into his ears as the light exploded, showing two faces. The first one was that of a blond kid, he had whisker marks across his face and deep blue eyes. The second face belonged to a pink haired girl, she had eyes that shone like emeralds and a delicate smile.

"Sasuke(-kun)!" the two faces said, before their bodies appeared and they extended their arms to him.

He didn't know what to do. Should he grab their hands? Should he just keep falling? Who were these people? Who was he? What should he do? Suddenly he felt a hand behind his back, pushing him up. He turned to see who it was. It was a man with black hair that framed his face, onyx eyes, and a friendly smile.

"Go, Sasuke." Itachi said with a smile on his face.

"Sasuke(-kun)!" Naruto and Sakura said once more with their arms outstretched.

Pushed by his brother, Sasuke took their hands and let Naruto and Sakura pull him upward toward the light. He saw the light come closer until it completely surrounded him.

He was wrong, he wasn't dead. He was more alive than ever.

-o-

"Haaaah!" Naruto shot a Biju Dama toward Menma.

Menma summoned Madara's Susanoo, and used the wood sword to slash the Biju Dama in two, creating several explosions behind him "Not nearly enough!" he mocked.

Naruto went to form another Biju Dama, but he was instead forced out of Biju Mode. He kneeled down in exhaustion.

"_Sorry, Naruto! I will have to charge more chakra!" _Kurama said.

"You ran out of chakra so soon?" Menma mocked "I thought you would be more of a challenge."

Lars lunged himself at Killer B, who dodged the attack. Gaara tried to catch Lars with the gold dust, but he was too fast. B took out Samehada and swung down at Lars, who dodged the hit. Lars then charged the Hachibi's chakra to his leg and kicked B square in the chest, sending him flying across the battlefield.

Lars started feeling the ground below him move. He jumped to get out of the way of a possible attack, but was instead left wide open for Gaara's real attack.

"Ryusa Bakuryu!" Gaara shouted as a tsunami of sand lunged at Lars.

"Tch!" Lars stretched his arm out "Ha!" he shouted as he tore a hole through the sand tsunami with electricity, before he controlled the dispersed sand to launch an attack on Gaara.

"What?" Gaara protected himself with gold dust from Lars' attack "You can control sand?"

"It was a gift from you." Lars said "With information from our previous battle and your previous Biju, I became able to control sand."

"Using our own powers against us?" Gaara said "Do you have any pride?"

"I am not like you." Lars replied "I will do what-"

"Don't you forget about me, you fool!" B, transformed into the Hachibi, came down on Lars with a Biju Dama prepared to launch "To the Hachibi-sama you're not cool!" he fired the Biju Dama.

"This is nothing!" Lars took flight and transformed partially into the Hachibi, before firing a Biju Dama of his own, along with electricity and lots of sand.

The two attacks clashed and an explosion ensued, sending B flying and causing Gaara to almost fall off his sand cloud. Gaara raised a huge shield of sand to protect both himself and Killer B, besides the two girls around Sasuke's body.

The two ongoing fights suddenly stopped when a pillar of purple chakra appeared out of nowhere. Everyone looked at the source of the chakra, it was Sasuke.

"What?" Sakura said.

"Ugh!" Sasuke opened his eyes and the pillar ceased to exist. He then sat up, before looking at his hands in bewilderment "I..."

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura screamed with joy as she hugged Sasuke, who appeared not to have even noticed.

"I..." he remembered being strangled by Menma, before he was pierced through with the sword from Menma's Susanoo. He then grabbed his stomach, it was intact. Had he been... healed? Only then did he notice Sakura was hugging him "Ugh..."

"Sasuke-kun! I thought you had died!" Sakura said as she stopped the hug "I tried to heal you, but nothing worked! I didn't know what to do, but... you're here!"

Sasuke looked at Sakura for a split second, before standing up.

"Wait, Sasuke-kun, you shouldn't move yet!" Sakura said, but she was ignored.

Sasuke looked around to see Menma fighting with Naruto, and Gaara and the Hachibi's Jinchuriki fighting against the guy that was at Menma's side before. He looked for his sword, before running electricity through his body and 'calling' the sword to him.

"It can't be..." Menma said, before his expresion turned from one of enjoyment to one of anger "How can you be alive? I killed you with my own hands!"

Sasuke sheathed his sword "A present from a friend." he said as he looked at Sakura for a moment again "I was saved and given a second chance to wipe you off the face of this planet."

"What?" Menma angrily said.

"Naruto!" Sasuke called "I am the one who will kill you, so why are you having so much of a hard time against him?"

"Sasuke, I-"

"If you die here, I won't be able to destroy Konoha." Sasuke stepped beside Naruto "Once we're done with this guy, we will settle our score."

"Yo! A master shinobi joined the ranks!" B shouted "Now we will beat them down the planks! Yeah, baby!"

Gaara smiled, it seemed Sasuke wasn't a lost cause after all.

Hinata and Sakura looked at Sasuke in surprise and awe, before Sakura said "Now, we will win."

"Uh?" Hinata turned to Sakura.

"The strongest tag-team has just been formed!" Sakura said.

"Menma, get ready to bite the dust!" Naruto said as he entered Kurama Chakra Mode.

"Let's go!" Sasuke activated his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan.

-o-

And that was the chapter! How did you like it?

The strongest tag-team is formed! Will the Naruto-Sasuke combination be able to defeat Menma? Leave a review.

The next chapter might very well be the last one. I'm not sure, but the story is drawing to its close.

Have an awesome day.


	4. Ultimate Rivals

Hey guys!

So, here we are, the last chapter of _Back to Battle_. It came sooner than expected, but I'm glad it turned out this way. I could end the story without losing my motivation to write it.

As for the promised explanations, yeah... I kinda screwed up in the writing of this chapter, and so a lot of stuff were left unexplained. Like how did Menma find Madara's eyes? Or where did he find the Kyubi's Yin chakra? I can write one more extra chapter explaining those things.

Tell me if you want that extra chapter in your reviews. However, I warn you that there will not be NaruHina in it.

Anyway, let's get onto the story.

-o-

"Bite the dust, you say?" Menma said "I have access to the full power of the Kyubi, and the merged power of the two strongest Uchihas in history. In other words, I could crush you both at the same time."

"Unfortunately for you, I didn't show you all I can do." Sasuke said.

"What do you mean, Sasuke?" Naruto asked.

"That sounds pretty stupid to me." Menma said "You were about to die and didn't use your full power before..."

"I had reserved this for when I battled Naruto." Sasuke replied "But in this case, I'll make an exception."

"So you didn't use it against me because of your pride." Menma commented "How foolish." he prepared to battle.

"Naruto, get ready!" Sasuke said as he unsheathed his sword and his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan started spinning,he was behind Menma in the next moment.

"What?" Menma immediately turned back to see Sasuke swinging his sword at him. Menma went to block it, but the slash quickly changed direction, and it still hit him in the arm. Menma jumped back _'What is that Jutsu?'_

"Pay attention!" Naruto said as he used his high speed to get to Menma in a split second and kicked him into the air, Naruto then jumped above Menma and prepared to deliver a punch with his extended chakra hand, but Menma blocked it with one of his own chakra hands.

Suddenly Sasuke appeared above Naruto and slashed at a wide open Menma, sending him crashing to the ground. Menma didn't take the full impact, however, as he summoned the ribcage of Madara's Susanoo. He got to his feet and looked to see Sasuke conjuring his Susanoo's arm.

"Naruto!" Sasuke called.

"Got it, Sasuke!" Naruto jumped onto the hand of Sasuke's Susanoo, before Sasuke threw him at Menma. Using Sasuke's mysterious new speed and his own speed, Naruto delivered a punch directly into Menma's stomach, right through the opening of the ribcage, sending him flying through the field.

"Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun are... amazing..." Hinata said.

"There is no stronger tag-team." Sakura said, before falling to her knees "Ugh!"

"Sakura-san!" Hinata kneeled down at Sakura's side "What's wrong?"

"I don't know why..." Sakura said "But when Sasuke-kun woke up... My chakra was sucked away..."

"Here." Hinata held Sakura's hand as she passed some chakra to her. Because of that, the shroud that came from Kurama's chakra disappeared.

"Thank you, Hinata." Sakura said, before looking again at Naruto and Sasuke.

Naruto went for a low kick, but Menma jumped above to dodge it. Sasuke then came at high speeds, and used his Susanoo's hand to punch the ribcage around Menma, sending him flying backwards.

"Tch!" Menma managed to land on his feet "Does this Jutsu boost your speed?"

"Boost my speed?" Sasuke repeated "No, actually it's the opposite."

"What do you mean?"

"My Jutsu slows time down." Sasuke said "It takes the Sharingan's ability to predict movements to its highest level."

"That's great, Sasuke!" Naruto praised.

_'How does he do it? If he can activate it, then so can I!' _Menma thought "And how does that Jutsu work?"

"What I told you is more than enough." Sasuke said "I won't tell you how to activate it."

"Hmm?"

"You claim to have full access to the Kyubi's chakra, yet Naruto is right here using that very same chakra. That means you managed to create a copy of sorts of Kyubi's chakra." Sasuke said "The reason you want to know how my Jutsu works is because you have a copy of my chakra. So you can use this Jutsu, but you don't know how to activate it."

"You saw right through me." Menma said.

"My eyes are no longer deceived." Sasuke said "What I see now... is reality."

"That's the Sasuke I know!" Naruto said "C'mon, let's kick this guy's ass!"

"Don't be celebrating victory yet!" Menma shouted as he activated Madara's two-sided complete Susanoo. But this time it was different. It wasn't using two wood swords, it was using one wood sword and a sword made out of black flames "This little game is still far from over."

Gaara tried to trap Lars in his sand, but he always used his electric attacks to keep the sand at bay. He would have to try a different approach, he turned to Killer B "Oi Hachibi!" he called "Throw me against him!"

"Getting him at close range is a leasure!" B rapped as he let Gaara step onto his hand "I will hurl you at him with pleasure! Yeah!" he threw Gaara at Lars.

"Foolish." Lars said as he charged his gauntlet with electricity. He then punched the incoming Gaara right in his chest, piercing through him "Hmph! This was too easy."

"The sand dude is gone, oh no!" B shouted "Now I'll have to go at him solo!"

"You haven't learned anything from our last fight, have you?" Gaara said from behind Lars, as the Gaara that hed been pierced started fading away into gold.

"Wha..."

Gaara controlled the gold dust and wrapped it around Lars, building a golden figure of his mother holding Lars in place "You are powerful, but you don't learn from your mistakes." Gaara said.

"I don't need to learn from my mistakes when I have power like this!" Lars shouted as he started being surrounded by dark red chakra. He formed a chakra shroud similar to the one B had when he used Lariat, but it was darker. With brute force, he broke out of Gaara's prison. He then went to attack Gaara, but B put one of the Hachibi's tentacles in the middle, taking the hit instead.

"Copying the others is not original, what a ripoff!" B said "Now I'm really pissed, I want to finish you off! Yeah!" he swiped two of his tentacles at Lars, who blocked the attack with a huge amount of sand. However, the force of the tentacles was too much, and it eventually broke through his defense.

"Gah!" Lars was hit by the slowed tentacles, and was sent flying. He stopped himself in mid-air and made some special chakra seals "I've got to keep you in your place, Hachibi!" wood spears came out of the ground around B, and proceeded to wrap themselves around him, keeping him from moving.

"This won't work, you can't keep me down!" B shouted as he struggled to break free "If you try to do that again, you will see me with a frown!" he broke free from the wooden spears.

"Then how about this!" Lars placed his hand on B's chest. Seven huge wood pillars appeared around B "You will revert back to your human form!" he started the Jutsu when Gaara hit him from the side, but he managed to keep the Jutsu going.

"I will not allow that!" Gaara shot another wave of sand at Lars.

"Too late!" Lars activated the Jutsu and the form of the Hachibi disappeared, B had been reverted to his human form.

"Now!" Gaara shouted as he raised all of the sand scattered through the battlefield "Sabaku Ro!" he shouted.

"Too slow!" Lars flew upwards, but suddenly something grabbed his foot and was pushing him down. He looked down to see Killer B holding Samehada, who had stretched its handle to reach Lars and bite his foot.

"You're not..." B pulled Lars down "Getting away, yo!"

"No!" Lars was engulfed by sand from all sides. He was now trapped in a giant sand prison.

Gaara panted from moving that much sand at once, but he wasn't done. He knew Lars would break out. He lifted a hand in the air, gathering gold above him to form a spear.

Electricity started shooting out of the giant sand ball until it eventually fell apart "Aaah!" Lars shouted as he broke free.

Gaara shot the gold spear at Lars "Kinro Sogeki!" the spear hit Lars head on, and sent him downward until he crashed into the ground. When the dust lifted, Gaara could see Lars getting up from the attack "What?"

"Not good enough!" Lars said.

"But... how?"

"It's his armor." B said "It is tough as hell, no mistake. It's a total pain, it won't brake."

Gaara panted, he needed to recover "I'm almost at my limit..." he said.

"Hattsan has just been forced back." B replied "We reached the end of this game with his hack."

Gaara stepped down from his sand cloud and dispelled it. He needed to think. Lars had his powers, the Hachibi's powers. And he also could use Mokuton techniques, just like Uchiha Madara could... That was it! He could use that strategy "I have an idea." he said "Can you distract him for a few seconds?"

"I can try, but it won't make him cry." B replied.

Gaara started forming hand seals "Anything will do, just keep his attention away."

"Roger that, sand dude!" Killer B said as he charged at Lars "Get ready for the prelude! Baby!" he took out two of his swords from Samehada, and started attacking Lars.

Lars blocked the slashes with ease "Are you getting so desperate you resort to such low level techniques?"

"This technique kept you at bay yesterday!" B replied "It will keep you at bay today!" he continued his barrage of attacks, some were blocked, some were dodged, but none of them connected.

Lars blocked one of the attacks before kicking B on his stomach, breaking his combo. He then proceeded to punch B with his fully charged electric gauntlet, discharging the electricity across B's body.

"_I'm sorry, B! If I could help you I would! But I still can't give my power to you!" _the Hachibi said.

_'Don't sweat it, Hattsan yo! I know you're trying your best, yeah!' _B replied.

B jumped above in the air and swung his swords down at Lars, who blocked the attack without breaking a sweat. Lars then kicked B away "You are annoying!"

"Now!" Gaara shouted as B immediately jumped out of the way "Kinriku Sotaiso!"

A huge amount of gold dust raised from beside Gaara and proceeded to envelop itself around Lars, forming a giant golden pyramid. Then, various markings started appearing around the pyramid, the sealing Jutsu that completely stopped one's movements.

"Sealed..." Gaara said, before he kneeled down in exhaustion.

"That Sealing Jutsu is hella strong." B said "He's gonna have a hard time moving along."

"This was the Jutsu we used to incapacitate the Edo Tensei in the last war..." Gaara said "Me and Tsunade, the Hokage, used this strategy to trap Uchiha Madara... But..."

"But?"

"We had trapped a Wood Clone instead." Gaara said "I just hope we got it right this time..."

Sasuke approached Menma from behind, before using his Susanoo to grab Menma's Susanoo and stop him from using it. He then charged his sword with electricity and swung at the outer shell of Menma's Susanoo, creating an opening for him to attack Menma directly "This is the end!"

Sasuke slashed at Menma, who jumped backwards to avoid the slash "Is that the best you can do?" Sasuke then kicked Menma out of his Susanoo, who was being held in place by Sasuke's Susanoo. With Menma kicked out of his Susanoo, Naruto could now attack him freely "Wha..."

"Wakusei Rasengan!" Naruto shouted as he lunged at Menma. The attack connected, sending Menma crashing into a rock, destroying it in the process "Hell yeah!"

Menma's Susanoo disappeared as Sasuke deactivated his own.

"Nice one, Sasuke!" Naruto said, giving Sasuke a thumbs up.

"Hmph!"

"Don't underestimate me!" Menma shouted as he got up from the impact, surprising both Naruto and Sasuke.

"What? How can he survive so many hits?" Naruto said.

"Funtime... is over!" Menma said "I will go all out!" suddenly an aura of chakra exploded around him "You will see the extent of my full power!"

Menma transformed into the Kyubi himself, before casting Susanoo around him. The Susanoo enveloped the transformed Menma, just like when Madara had done it years ago against Hashirama. Sasuke looked at the beast's eyes, they had turned into a Rinnegan, Madara's Rinnegan.

"This is bad...!" Sasuke said.

_'Kurama, how's that chakra gathering?' _Naruto asked.

"_Just a little bit more, Naruto!" _Kurama replied.

"We have to try something!" Naruto said as he formed a Rasenshuriken.

"Wait, Naruto-kun!" Hinata shouted as she ran towards Naruto.

"Hinata, get back! It's dangerous!" Naruto said.

"You have to break his armor all at once!" Hinata said, inspecting Menma with her Byakugan "Otherwise he will just restore it!"

"Then we will have to use our strongest Jutsu at the same time." Naruto said.

"Then let's go!" Sasuke activated his complete Susanoo.

"I told you not to underestimate me!" Menma shouted as gian wood spear sprouted from the ground, enveloping the entire battlefield. Even B, Gaara, and the sealed Lars were inside the newly created forest. Then a huge earthquake ensued.

"Wah!" Sakura lost her balance "What is this?"

Suddenly, Naruto and the others were pushed to the ground. Menma was raising the battlefield high above the skies. **(A/N: Check the Madara Boss Battle in Storm 3.)**

"Ugh!" Naruto managed to get up, just as the battlefield stopped raising "Tch! I don't think just our power will be enough!"

"No problem, yo!" B came running to them, while supporting Gaara "Killer B's here to save your asses, yeah!" B left Gaara right beside Sakura.

"Heal me." Gaara said.

"I'm on it!" Sakura started healing Gaara.

"Enough talking!" Menma shouted as he started gathering energy around the Kyubi's mouth.

"Don't tell me..." Naruto couldn't believe it, he was going to fire a Biju Dama at such close range?

"This is the end for you!" Menma shouted as he prepared to fire the attack "Biju Dama!"

"Shit!" Naruto and jumped forward and blocked the attack with his bare hands. He wasn't being successful, he was being pushed back with no problems at all "C'mon!"

"Yah!" Sasuke used his Susanoo to block the Biju Dama as well.

"It's no use!" Menma shouted "You will die here and now!"

"I already told you before..." Naruto said as he struggled to push the Biju Dama away "I won't let you hurt my friends!"

"The one who will die here..." Sasuke said as he used all his might to keep the Biju Dama away "Is going to be you!"

"_HORYAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"_

"_UWHOOOOOOOOOAAAHHH!"_

"What?" Menma looked as the Biju Dama was deflected away. This wasn't possible! How could they have deflected his attack? This... This couldn't be happening!

Naruto and Sasuke fell to the ground exhausted, but they still kept the Kurama Chakra Mode and the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan activated. They still had one more thing to do before depleting away their chakra reserves.

"_Naruto, if this keeps up I won't be able to give you enough power to enter Biju Mode." _Kurama said.

_'Sorry, Kurama... But I don't think I'll be able to enter Biju Mode anyway...'_ Naruto replied.

"_B! I can give you enough to enter Version 2!" _the Hachibi said.

_'Thank you, Hattsan!' _B replied as he entered Version 2.

"Don't think you've won!" Menma shouted as he slashed at them, but a wall of sand got in the way.

"Don't even think about it!" Gaara said as he pushed Menma back and got the rest of them on sand clouds "Now!"

"Take this!" B shouted as he jumped high in the air from the sand cloud "This might not be as powerful as the real deal, but it will hurt you so bad you won't even heal!" he gathered a smaller version of the Biju Dama.

"Useless!" Menm said as he prepared yet another Biju Dama.

"Too late for the hate!" B shouted as he used his Biju Dama to push Menma's Biju Dama into the Kyubi's gut, where it exploded. B fell down on the sand cloud again, his chakra reserves depleted and the Version 2 gone "Oh, yeah!"

"Now, while it's weakened!" Sakura shouted as she charged chakra onto her fist.

"Here we go!" Hinata shouted as she jumped down the Kyubi along with Sakura "Juho Soshiken!" she shouted.

"Shannaro!" Sakura screamed as they punched the outer shell of Menma's Susanoo, causing a huge crack to appear.

Menma was pushed back by the punch. Why? How was this happening? He should be crushing them like bugs! But they were over powering him! First the Kazekage managed to block his slash with mere sand, then the Hachibi managed to attack the Kyubi internally, now the two girls had cracked his Susanoo... What the fuck was happening?

"There's still more!" Naruto shouted from high above the sky. He and Sasuke were preparing the last attack. They jumped from the sand clouds down at Menma. Naruto was holding what seemed to be a dark Rasengan, while Sasuke was using the sword of black flames.

"What the fuck! Why? How can you runts be so strong!" Menma shouted in deapair.

"The battle was decided the moment Sasuke and I teamed up!" Naruto said "You might be more powerful than our powers combined, but Sasuke and I are the Ultimate Rivals!"

"This is the end!" Sasuke shouted.

"Biju Rasengan!"

"Sword of Kagutsuchi!"

The two attacks hit simultaneously, completely destroying the Susanoo armor and hitting the Kyubi's body head on. The attack was so powerful it even blew the tree roots below the plateau apart, causing the battlefield to start falling to its previous position.

Naruto and Sasuke, now completely ehxausted and out of any enhanced state, were caught by Gaara's sand as they all fell down. The plateau hit the land with so much power even Gaara's gold pyramid fell apart to reveal an unconscious Lars.

Gaara slowly brought them down to ground level. They all sat down on the ground and took a few moments to breathe.

"That was tiring as fuck!" B rapped "But we ended up having luck!"

Gaara used what was left of his chakra to drag Lars' unconscious body to him. He then placed a paper tag on Lars so that he wouldn't move even if he woke up "I'll take him to Sunagakure with me... We will ask him a few questions before we throw him into jail."

"Naruto-kun..." Hinata said between pants.

"Yes?"

"Remember when you invited me to the Ichiraku Ramen shop?" she asked.

"Yeah... I do..." Naruto replied.

"Well... I would like to go there when we return to Konoha..." she said.

Naruto turned to Hinata "Really?"

"Yes..." Hinata looked back at Naruto.

"Okay... Then it's a deal..." Naruto said, before smiling at Hinata, who smiled back.

Sakura smiled at Naruto, she was right after all. She then turned to Sasuke. She didn't know what to do... She wanted to talk to him, but she wasn't sure what his reaction would be... She wasn't sure she was even ready to talk to him yet...

"Sakura..." Sasuke called, suprising Sakura.

"Wh... What...?" she asked.

"You really are... annoying..." Sasuke said, surprising Sakura even further "You didn't even let me die. That's how annoying you are."

"Sasuke-kun, what are you..."

"Your chakra was sucked away when I was revived, wasn't it?" Sasuke said.

"Sasuke-kun..." Sakura realized what Sasuke was saying "I-"

"Any... way..." Sasuke slowly got up "I'll leave now..."

"Wait, Sasuke!" Naruto called, getting up as well "Didn't you want to settle our score?"

"Before that, we will both have to be at full power." Sasuke said "We're like rag dolls right now."

"Okay, then." Naruto said "I'll be waiting for you, Sasuke!"

"Hmph!" Sasuke started walking away.

"Wait!" they heard a voice "This... fight... isn't... over..." it was Menma, rising from the pile of rubble "It's not over yet!"

Hinata tried to activate her Byakugan to see how much chakra Menma had left, but she was too exhausted to do it. Sasuke stopped walking and looked at Menma.

"This victor of this fight... is me." Menma said.

"Stop spouting nonsense!" Naruto shouted "We're the clear winners of this fight!"

"Oh, no you're not!" Menma said "I have plenty of my own chakra left! You, on the other hand, are completely exhausted."

"Wanna bet that?" Naruto replied "Sorry Sasuke, I'll have to ask you one last favor."

"Fine." Sasuke stepped beside Naruto "With this he will shut his mouth forever."

"Again with the Ultimate Rivals crap?" Menma said "I'm sorry but miracles don't happen twice!"

"I will show you..." Naruto charged at Menma "That it wasn't a miracle!" he went for a punch, but Menma dodged it.

Sasuke then slashed his sword at Menma, but the attack was dodged as well. He wasn't bluffing when he said that he had plenty of chakra left. Menma then grabbed both Naruto and Sasuke by their throats.

"Do you understand now?" Menma said "You have no chance of winning!"

"I don't care about what you say!" Naruto replied "I will never give up!"

"Foolish!" he started strengthening his grip "You will die an ignorant!"

"You're the ingnorant one!" Naruto shouted as he gritted his teeth trying to resist the grip. He had to break away! He _would _break away! "Hiyaah!" he shouted as he kicked Menma right in his nuts.

"Ah..." Menma screamed in pain as he let go of Naruto and Sasuke.

"Well... He _is _the No.1 Impredictable Ninja." Sakura said.

Menma regained his posture, before looking at Naruto and Sasuke.

"See that!" Naruto shouted "I will definitely win!"

"I'm tired of your stupid reasonings!" Menma shouted as he charged at Naruto "I will kill you with my own two hands!"

"Don't forget about me!" Sasuke said, as he slashed across Menma's torso.

"Guah!" Menma shouted in pain as blood spilled from the wound left by the slash. He panted heavily as he tried to calm down. He had far more chakra than these two! He should be winning!" he looked up to see Naruto right on top of him, with a fist prepared to smack into him.

"My friends, my rivals, my teachers and my parents! They're together with me at all times!" Naruto said, as he prepared to punch Menma "This is gonna hurt!" he delivered a punch right into Menma's forehead "Hayaaaaah!"

"Go! Naruto(-kun)!" Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata, Gaara and Killer B shouted.

"GO!" Naruto punched Menma's head into the ground, creating crack and fissures all around it. He was going to fall on his back, but Hinata caught him before he fell.

Menma had fainted from the punch, Naruto had finally managed to defeat him. Gaara put a paper tag on him as well "I'll be taking this one too."

**(A/N: Okay, I think it's pretty clear I was inspired by Storm 3 in this chapter. Just wanted to point that out.)**

-o-

A few days later...

Konoha...

-o-

Naruto, Sakura and Hinata arrived at the village after their little trip. Naruto inhaled the air of his hometown "Ah! Feels great to be back!"

"Really, it hasn't been that long, but it seems we were away for ages." Sakura said, before turning to the other two "Well, I have stuff to do at home, so good luck to you two."

Hinata blushed "What do you mean by that, Sakura-san?"

"Well, I need to go now, bye!" Sakura ran toward the inside of the village.

Naruto turned to Hinata "So, Hinata, want to come to Ichiraku with me?" he offered her his hand.

Hinata looked at Naruto before taking the hand and smiled at him "I would love to."

"Then, let's go!" Naruto started running and dragged Hinata along with him "To the Ramen Shop!"

They arrived at the place in a few minutes. Naruto entered the shop "Yo! Long time no see!"

"Ah! Naruto!" Teuchi said "I was waiting for you to come back!"

"Well, I'm here!" he said "So, how much does your new dish cost?"

"Uh? What are you talking about?" Teuchi said "Didn't I tell you would get it for free?"

"Yeah, but that was more than a week ago. You said you would give me the first one." Naruto said, letting Hinata in "And besides, I have company today."

"Hello..." Hinata said.

"Oh, I see! That is not a problem!" Teuchi said "I was waiting for your return so I could announce the new dish!"

"Whoah! Really?" Naruto said.

"You two are going to get our new dish for free!" Teuchi said, he turned to the kitchen "Ayame!"

"Here we go!" Ayame came from the kitchen with two big bowls of ramen. She served them to Naruto and Hinata "Eat up!"

"Oh yeah!" Naruto said "Don't mind if I do!" he dug in the dish.

Hinata smiled at Naruto, before starting to eat as well.

-o-

And that was it! The story reached its end.

I'm sorry for the ones who were expecting the Juubi to appear. I wanted to put it in, but I didn't find out a way to do it, so the idea was cut.

Anyway, how was the chapter? How was the fic? Was it to your liking? And do you want me to write the extra chapter with explanations? Leave a review.

Have an awesome day.


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